Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

351S: Book about a girl with a delightful long string of names (Solved!)

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I am searching for a children’s fiction chapter book that I think I read around 1969 or 1970 when I was in fifth or sixth grade. The primary detail that I recall about the book was that the main character was a girl with a really long name of multiple first/middle names.  I believe she was a pioneer girl, and I definitely am sure that her names were old fashioned type names, such as Samantha, Jane, Emily, Sarah, etc.  though my examples here may not have been the ones. I almost think I remember that the first sentence of the book opened with “My name is  . . . . .” The character’s last name may have started with Mc or Mac.  I have zero recollection as to what the title or author of this book was. I have some vague memory that the illustration in the book showed her as having braids.
I would absolutely love to re-discover this book and share it with my daughters (who are now in their twenties, but would still get a kick out of it!), and I appreciate any help you may be able to offer.

350I: Boy raised in India starts hunger strike with classmates in US (Solved!)

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I remember a fiction book from when I was a kid about a boy who was raised in India by his father. But when his father died (and there was a part where I remember the boy going out on the river to dump his father’s cremated ashes), he ends up having to move to the US to live with his grandmother (I think). He was probably middle school aged? He struggles a bit to fit in, but then when his grandmother’s house ends up being threatened by a new highway going through, the boy convinces several of his classmates to come over to the house and they start a hunger strike that ultimately results in the house being saved. Some of those details may be a little shaky, but that’s more or less what I remember. Thanks for any help!

349Q: The Four Elementals and the Earth Children Raised in World with Magic

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The book was a children’s/YA book published sometime between 2005 and 2012. It was meant to be a quartet. I know 2 came out and I was curious if it was ever finished.
It had two main characters, a boy on earth who was disabled because he born on a world with magic. And a girl who is from earth but was raised in the world with magic, she’s the only one who can’t use magic and is immune to it.
There are evil magicians who can travel between the worlds, but doing so damages the worlds. The two main characters can move back and forth together but it damages the worlds. They’re told the only solution is to seek help from each of four elementals, societies of magic creatures that, if all four can be convinced to help, can make a bridge between the worlds in a safe way. Both of the main characters have to go to their birth worlds or it’s bad for the fabric of the universe or something, and this can only be accomplished with their help. The bad guys use dark magic and want to hunt them down. The boy struggles to learn the magic of his birth world. The first book dealt with the water elementals and the second with the earth elementals, I think. I think the name of the magic world started with an F
There’s a scene where the girl is on earth for the first time while they’re on the run and they go to a McDonald’s and she experiences a soda for the first time. I think her name starts with a K (Kira?)and the boy’s might be Marcus.

349M: The Empty Valley Mystery

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All I remember about this book is that a group of kids (who were maybe related. There were two brothers?) ended up in this absolutely empty valley - there was a plane involved. And they explore this valley - find a cave to live in. And at some point they solve a mystery - a chicken is involved - and they find gold. And then get rescued. This was is the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew genre. All I remember about the cover is that it had a numeral of sorts on it. Also, in another book in the same series one of the brothers finds a rare bird - a great auk or something.

349A: Orphan finds a home

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Hello.  Looking for a book that my daughter and I read about 4-5 years ago when she was 10 or 11.  The story involves a feisty girl who is about that age and is orphaned.  She tries to stay at home with her brother but a policeman and a Catholic nun come to take her away.  She hits the nun or a priest.  She is taken to an orphanage and always believes her brother will come for her.  She does see him again but he unable to provide for her.  At some functions for the orphanage, she meets a beautiful young woman who is engaged to a handsome, rich man.  The orphan’s spirit and determination catch the eye of this woman and somehow they become friends.  In the end, the lady inherits a farm out west and breaks her engagement.   She takes the orphan with her and they travel west.

This story is set in early to mid 20th century.  I can’t  remember the exact time frame.  I want to say it’s  between 1920-1940.
Hopefully, you are able to help me with this title as we both loved the book but neither of us can remember the title!

348Q: A little girl and a racoon (?) (Solved!)

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This is a paperback book that I believe was bought new around 1980 – 1981. (I think my mom bought it, and we lived in Western Massachusetts at the time, although she gave it to me to read on a trip to New York City to visit my grandparents.) It was a slim book with pictures for school-age kids, but I think it was closer to the size of a typical chapter book rather than a picture book.
The story is about a little girl who at some point ends up fighting or having some kind of conflict with an animal outside, who I think was a racoon (although for some reason a fox also comes to mind, maybe instead of or in addition to the racoon? There also may have been no fox). The conflict in the story was quite emotional – I remember the little girl feeling both mad and maybe sad, and I’m pretty sure she also ultimately cared about the racoon/animal. The racoon/animal may have also been injured or in trouble somehow. I liked the story, but it wasn’t the most bright or cheerful tale.
I think the little girl had straight or wavy black hair worn up in a ponytail. I also feel like she wore a skirt ending above her bare knees. The pictures were delicate, and – at least in some cases – had dark features or strong shadows. The color I remember most apart from the dark aspects is orange…which kind of overlaps with my memory of a fox and its reddish-orange fur.